SUFFER GOING IN PARTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25178, 16 April 1945, Page 5

SUFFER GOING IN PARTS

SEVEN MILES FROM CHEMNITZ ENEMY STANDING AT LEIPZIG ONE ELBE BRIDGEHEAD WITHDRAWN J By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received April 15, 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, April 15 While Nazi resistance has been stiffening on the Elbe and around Leipzig, Allied spearheads have driven deeper into Germany. The 4th,Armoured Division of the United States Third Army has pushed to within seven miles of Chemnitz, bringing it not more than 100 miles from Marshal Koniev's forces east of Dresden. Other Third Army forces have pushed to within 18 miles of the Czechoslovak border and have taken Bayreuth. : A little further south two columns of the American Seventh Army are not much more than 20 miles from .Nuremberg, j In Central Germany First Army forces closing on Leipzig are meeting heavy opposition. "The Germans apparently have decided to make a determined attempt to save the city," says the Exchange Telegraph correspondent. "Every anti-aircraft gun previously used to defend the city against bombers is now ranged along the First Army Front. We have never encountered so many guns in such a confined space. There are more than 250 guns facing us. Seventytwo were knocked out yesterday." One armoured column of the First Army has nearly reached the outskirts of Dessau, on the Elbe about 65 miles south-west of Berlin. * The Ninth Army's 2nd Armoured Division has had to withdraw from its bridgehead across the Elbe near Magdeburg, but the second bridgehead, established by the 83rd Division to the south, has been expanded. The withdrawal was decided on because tanks and guns could not be got across to the infantry on the other bank. Engineers built a bridge, but it was knocked out by gunfire. Tanks and guns have been got across the river by the 83rd Division. Farther north British Second Army troops are engaged in hard fighting following their 20-mile advance from the Aller. United Kingdom troops are running into what is described as fanatical opposition 25 miles from the lower Elbe. In the Netherlands the Canadian First Army has made sweeping progress. The Polish Armoured Division driving toward the mouth of the Ems is within a few miles of the North Sea and the Canadians fanning out east and west of the ancient town of Groningen are meeting hardly any opposition. Arnhem is practically cleared. Only a small corner of the Netherlands remains to be freed. In the Ruhr the American First Army, striking up from the south, has driven practically clean through the middle of the enemy pocket and almost linked up with the Ninth Army.